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Ahead of a historic Supreme Court decision on the fate of Roe vs. Wade, the nation recorded its first significant increase in the abortion rate in more than three decades, according to new statistics. The rate rose 7%, from 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women and girls of child-bearing age in 2017 to 14.4 in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. Overall, there were 930,160 abortions in the United States in 2020, up 8% from 862,320 in 2017. (Haberkorn and Reyes, 6/14)

Medication abortions, the two-drug combination sometimes called the “abortion pill,” accounted for 54% of U.S. abortions in 2020, the first time they made up more than half of abortions, the report from the Guttmacher Institute said. (Johnson, 6/15)

The study, released Wednesday, didn’t determine the exact reasons for the reversal but pointed to several potential factors. Some states expanded Medicaid coverage for abortion and funds that help pay for the procedure expanded capacity, potentially increasing access, researchers said. A Trump administration policy stripped federal dollars from clinics that refer patients for abortions, which clinics said affected contraceptive care. (Calfas, 6/15)

Abortions are still far less common than they were 30 years ago. In 1981, when the U.S. population was significantly smaller, about 1.6 million abortions were recorded, per Guttmacher’s records. That represented a peak, and the number has steadily declined. Since 2011, fewer than a million abortions have been performed per year. It’s not clear what is behind the 2020 increase. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic could have discouraged people from giving birth, Nash said. Policies embraced by the Trump administration resulted in fewer clinics providing family planning services for low-income people, which could have resulted in more unintended pregnancies and a greater need for abortions. (Luthra, 6/15)

The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would extend police protection to the immediate families of Supreme Court justices, clearing the bill for President Biden at a time of rising concern about threats to justices as a potentially momentous abortion ruling looms. The vote was 396 to 27, with all of the opposition coming from Democrats, who tried unsuccessfully to extend the protections to the families of court employees. (Hulse, 6/14)

The 27 “no” votes were Democrats from across the ideological spectrum. Some progressives said they voted against the bill because it wasn’t broad enough, and they felt Congress was neglecting its duty to protect healthcare workers who provide abortions or to put in place significant gun reforms to protect Americans. “I don’t want us to send the message of saying it’s a big club and the American people aren’t in it,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.). (Bravin and Collins, 6/14)

The Supreme Court’s expected overturning of Roe v. Wade has captured all the news attention, but the Court could well lay the groundwork for even larger changes in American governance before it adjourns for the term — and trigger a state-by-state battle for the new shape of laws and American civic life. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, activists on both sides are already girding for full-force political battles over state abortion access, possibly followed by similar struggles over contraception, and even same-sex marriage. (Bernstein, 6/14)

A new Florida law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks with some exceptions violates religious freedom rights of Jews in addition to the state constitution’s privacy protections, a synagogue claims in a lawsuit. The lawsuit filed by the Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor of Boynton Beach contends the law that takes effect July 1 violates Jewish teachings, which state abortion “is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman” and for other reasons. (Anderson, 6/14)

Kentucky’s Republican attorney general went to court Tuesday claiming the Democratic governor’s administration missed a deadline to set up a regulatory process for a sweeping new abortion law currently blocked by a federal court order. In a maneuver loaded with political and legal implications, Attorney General Daniel Cameron said in his lawsuit against Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration that state officials are still obligated to craft regulations and create forms associated with the new law’s restrictions, even though a federal judge temporarily halted its enforcement while the case is litigated. (Schreiner, 6/14)

Dr. Julie Jenkins lives in Dover and works for a company that provides telemedicine abortion services in a handful of states where it's legal. She's considered getting licensed to do the same in New Hampshire — but until recently, one barrier has stood in the way. “The reason that I have not pursued licensure in New Hampshire is specifically because of the ultrasound law,” she said. This was one of the potentially unintended and under-the-radar consequences of a 2021 New Hampshire law that required an ultrasound before any abortion, even in cases where that step wasn’t medically necessary. (Fam, 6/15)

Fearing the U.S. Supreme Court will soon overturn Roe v. Wade, California Democrats on Tuesday moved quickly to ensure the state’s progressive voters have a chance this fall to make abortion a constitutional right in the nation’s most populous state. A proposed amendment to the California Constitution that would explicitly ban the state from denying or interfering with abortions or contraceptives cleared two legislative committees in a single day on Tuesday, an unusually fast pace for a Legislature that many times takes two years to move a bill through its arduous process. (Beam, 6/15)

A wave of unionization is sweeping the US abortion care industry, as burnt-out employees prepare for a major roll back of reproductive rights. The group Planned Parenthood North Central States United is trying to unionize more than 400 Planned Parenthood workers in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota to address issues like low pay. It’s seeking an election this summer, to get the union officially recognized. The organization is joined by clinic workers in Massachusetts trying to unionize right now, while employees at a major reproductive health care researcher are also looking to organize. (Butler, 6/14)

The first of them arrived outside the clinic past 4 a.m., before a steady rain fell and a scalding sun rose, and all along, they had prayed for a moment like this. It’s abortion day at Planned Parenthood and, try as they might, those who lined the street hadn’t had much luck changing any minds. Now, a patient pushes out of the center’s doors, limply drags her feet across the parking lot, and heads straight into the arms of an anti-abortion counselor who, a short while earlier, asked her not to do what she came here for. (Sedensky, 6/14)

A new study points to prior COVID-19 infection as a possible culprit for the global wave of severe hepatitis cases among children -- though experts caution the true cause is still a medical mystery. Researchers in Israel added evidence for the theory in a small study published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, suggesting some children might develop liver inflammation in the weeks after recovering from a mild COVID-19 infection. (Salzman, 6/14)

Long COVID may be the cause of unexplained cases of hepatitis in children around the world in recent months, Israeli researchers from Schneider Children’s Medical Center, Rabin Medical Center – Beilinson Hospital, Rambam Medical Center and Tel Aviv University found in a study recently published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. ... The Israeli scientists who conducted the study noted that liver injury has been recorded in adult patients with severe coronavirus infections and that children can be affected with multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) as a result of COVID-19, which can injure the liver. Post-COVID-19 liver injuries have been increasingly reported among adults as well. (Joffre, 6/14)

Unexplained hepatitis does not appear to have become more common among American children than it was before the Covid-19 pandemic began, according to a new review of three large medical databases by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The results are part of an ongoing investigation into a puzzling cluster of cases of severe hepatitis, or liver inflammation, in previously healthy children, which date back to October 2021. As of May 26, 650 probable cases had been reported in 33 countries, according to the World Health Organization. Although the cases are extremely rare, they can be severe, resulting in liver transplants or death. (Anthes, 6/14)

World Trade Center responders with chronic health conditions who contract COVID-19 may have more serious and long-term illness from the virus, according to a new study from the Stony Brook World Trade Center Health and Wellness Program. The study looked at 1,280 patients at the program with COVID-19, all of whom were 9/11 responders, comparing ones with chronic disease to those without. It was published this month in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. (Colangelo, 6/13)

Dogs can also detect viral compounds in sweat from Long COVID patients up to 18 months after they first caught the virus, according to a study co-authored by Grandjean and posted in January on MedRxiv, a server for new research that hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed. (The study was subsequently published in the Journal of Clinical Trials.) Canines in that study detected evidence of the virus in samples from 23 out of 45 Long COVID patients in the trial, but not among any of the sweat samples that came from 188 people without Long COVID. (Ducharme, 6/14)

Virologist Sissy Sonnleitner tracks nearly every COVID-19 case in Austria’s rugged eastern Tyrol region. So, when one woman there kept testing positive for months on end, Sonnleitner was determined to work out what was going on. Before becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 in late 2020, the woman, who was in her 60s, had been taking immune-suppressing drugs to treat a lymphoma relapse. The COVID-19 infection lingered for more than seven months, causing relatively mild symptoms, including fatigue and a cough. (Callaway, 6/15)

Last year, Diana Berrent—the founder of Survivor Corps, a Long COVID support group—asked the group’s members if they’d ever had thoughts of suicide since developing Long COVID. About 18% of people who responded said they had, a number much higher than the 4% of the general U.S. adult population that has experienced recent suicidal thoughts. A few weeks ago, Berrent posed the same question to current members of her group. This time, of the nearly 200 people who responded, 45% said they’d contemplated suicide. (Ducharme, 6/13)

PureTech Health’s long COVID trial has come up short. The drug candidate failed to help patients with the condition walk farther, prompting the company to drop plans for further studies in the indication. In 2020, PureTech identified an opportunity to use its deuterated form of pirfenidone—a treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis that Roche’s Genentech sells as Esbriet—in patients with long COVID. The decision to start a clinical trial of the candidate, LYT-100, in the indication was underpinned by evidence of the prevalence of lung fibrosis in COVID-19 patients and persistence of long-term symptoms. (Taylor, 6/14)

A newly developed blood test that measures a specific immune response in the body could help doctors gauge how much protection a person has against Covid-19, according to a new study. The test, which focuses on the part of the immune system that confers long-term protection by prompting the body to "remember" the virus, could help make sense of the complex tangle of Covid immunity that now exists from person to person. The test can, for instance, measure immunity regardless of whether someone has developed a level of protection from one or more natural infections or from vaccinations and booster shots. (Chow, 6/14)

The Biden administration, applying lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, will soon unveil a new defense strategy against biological threats that puts the White House at the center of any future US response. A senior administration official, speaking under the condition of anonymity as the strategy has not yet been released, said that the government has paid close attention to research that suggests there’s a 50/50 chance of another Covid-like pandemic — or one that is more deadly — over the next 25 years. The Biden plan is the result of more than a year of work by US national security and public health experts to improve the nation’s framework for preparedness, response and recovery. (Griffin, 6/14)

KHN: Will The US Overcome Its Covid Complacency Even As The Threat Returns? 

A few months ago, it seemed as though the country was poised to finally tame the pandemic, after two years of restrictions and tens of billions in government spending. The Biden administration in March released the first national covid-19 preparedness plan to help Americans safely “return to normal,” a strategy to live with the continued presence of the virus and the emergence of new variants. In response, elected representatives and much of the country essentially sighed, seemingly preferring to move on and give up the fight. (Rosenthal, 6/15)

While many Floridians are living their lives without COVID-19 precautions, the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the state is on the rise. As of this past week, more Florida residents are living in what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls "high-risk counties" than anywhere else in the country. Florida has 86 percent of people living in high-risk counties, compared to the national average of 22 percent. High-risk level counties are largely determined by the number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations. Jason Salemi, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida, said this news is not shocking. (LeFever, 6/14)

Though it causes less severe disease than the Delta variant, the highly transmissible Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant has been twice as deadly in unvaccinated people and has therefore hit rural Americans harder than those living in cities, a study today in Frontiers in Medicine finds. Because low-vaccination parts of the country are mostly rural, those living in less densely populated areas continue to bear the highest COVID-19 burden, according to the study authors, who hail from universities in four US states and Zimbabwe. They worry that rural America will face a disproportionate long-term impact from lingering symptoms known as long COVID. (Wappes, 6/14)

While visitors to Nellis Air Force Base and other facilities will need to wear masks to protect against the spreading of COVID-19, the state’s casinos won’t require them. A spokesman for the Nevada Gaming Control Board on Monday said administrators would only issue directives for facial coverings at casinos if directed to under an order from Gov. Steve Sisolak — and that hasn’t happened. Nellis and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area visitors center are requiring indoor mask-wearing, regardless of vaccination status, now that Clark County has been federally designated as having a high community level of COVID-19. (Velotta, 6/14)

The Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls is in the process of vaccinating its most susceptible animals against the coronavirus. A global animal health company, Zoetis, has developed an experimental vaccine for COVID-19 and is working with zoos across the country to distribute its limited supply to vaccinate the most at-risk species as soon as possible. (6/14)

More than half of the health professionals and first responders in Sarasota and Manatee counties have experienced compassion fatigue, according to a community impact report released by a nonprofit that helps people deal with trauma. Resilient Retreat collected the data to demonstrate the need for trauma-based services in Sarasota and Manatee for health care workers and first responders. Lisa Intagliata, executive director of the Sarasota-based organization, says the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected people who help others. (Carter, 6/14)

Pfizer on Tuesday said a study showed its COVID-19 pill Paxlovid didn't significantly reduce the risk of hospitalization or death in people with a standard risk of developing severe infections. The results could mean the antiviral could be largely limited to high-risk patient populations, where it's been shown to be effective. Pfizer said it was halting enrollment in the study of standard-risk patients after Paxlovid showed a 51% risk reduction, which the company called "non-significant." (Bettelheim, 6/14)

A study of nearly 500 high-risk patients treated with Paxlovid for their COVID-19 infections found that only a few had rebound symptoms, Mayo Clinic researchers reported today in Clinical Infectious Diseases. ... The retrospective review included 483 high-risk patients who received the drug at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, through an outpatient COVID-19 treatment program. The researchers identified four patients who had rebound symptoms, which occurred at a median of 9 days after treatment. All were fully vaccinated. Symptoms were generally mild, and all four recovered without additional COVID-specific treatment. (Schnirring, 6/14)

Parents could soon have two vaccines to choose from when vaccinating their children against COVID-19. After hearing hours of testimony Tuesday, a federal advisory panel voted unanimously to recommend Moderna's vaccine be made available to children 6 and up. So far, only Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine has been allowed for children. Assuming the Food and Drug Administration commissioner signs off on the panel's recommendation, as expected, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will review Moderna's vaccine data later this week and the shots could become available as soon as next week. (Weintraub, 6/14)

New Hampshire’s COVID-19 vaccine van initiative is retiring this month after operating for nearly a full year. From housing complexes to state parks, the mobile vaccine vans have traveled all over New Hampshire. Some clinics have administered hundreds of shots, while others saw fewer than 10 people. The retirement of the vaccine vans is part of a long-standing plan to shift responsibility for New Hampshire's pandemic response away from state government and toward the private healthcare system. The vaccine for infants and young children, which is expected to roll out later this month, will be primarily distributed at pharmacies, doctors offices and urgent care centers, rather than state operated clinics. (Fam, 6/14)

The World Health Organization will officially rename monkeypox, in light of concerns about stigma and racism surrounding the virus that has infected over 1,600 people in more than two dozen countries. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director general, announced Tuesday morning that the organization is “working with partners and experts from around the world on changing the name of monkeypox virus, its clades and the disease it causes.” He said the WHO will make announcements about the new names as soon as possible.  (Muller, 6/13)

The World Health Organization is convening its emergency committee next week to decide whether the monkeypox outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern — the world’s highest health alert. The meeting should help international coordination on the response now that monkeypox has spread to at least 39 countries, which have in total reported more than 1,600 confirmed cases and an additional 1,500 suspected cases to the WHO. (Paun and Payne, 6/14)

With more than 3,100 confirmed and suspected cases of monkeypox in 32 non-endemic and 7 endemic countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) today said it does not recommend mass vaccination campaigns at this time to limit the outbreaks, and instead emphasized contact tracing and isolation to limit the further spread of the poxvirus. In new interim guidance on vaccine use against monkeypox, the WHO said contacts of cases should be offered post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) with a vaccine within four days of first exposure to prevent onset of disease. (Soucheray, 6/14)

In the past three years, the world has weathered two very different global outbreaks, caused by two very different pathogens, under two sets of very different circumstances. Unlike with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with monkeypox, we’re entering an epidemic with highly effective vaccines—formulated to guard against smallpox—already in hand. Also unlike with SARS-CoV-2, with monkeypox, the shots stockpiled in U.S. stores are based on some pretty grody tech. Nearly all of the 100 million available smallpox vaccines are ACAM2000, an inoculation that, per FDA documentation, gets punctured “rapidly” into the arm via 15 jabs of a bifurcated, escargot-fork-esque needle, in a fashion “vigorous enough” to draw blood. In the weeks following, a gnarly, pus-laden lump blossoms, then scabs and falls away. “It’s oozy; it’s nasty; it definitely doesn’t feel good,” says Kelsey Cone, a virologist at ARUP Laboratories, in Utah, who received the vaccine about 12 years ago. (Wu, 6/14)

A fourth Massachusetts man has tested positive for the monkeypox virus, officials said Tuesday, two days after two other infections were reported and nearly a month after the state’s first case of the virus was announced amid an international outbreak. The man’s initial testing was completed Monday at the State Public Health Laboratory in Jamaica Plain, and further testing to confirm the infection will be conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a statement from the Department of Public Health. (Fox, 6/14)

As the cases of monkeypox continue to rise globally, the Georgia Department of Public Health on Tuesday confirmed a second case of the infectious disease in Georgia. ... Earlier this month, DPH announced the first-ever case in the state — a man who lives in metro Atlanta with a history of international travel. He was ordered into isolation where public health officials are monitoring his symptoms, according to DPH. The agency also traced his recent contacts. The second case is man who also lives in metro Atlanta and has traveled internationally. DPH said the two cases are not related. DPH is also doing contact tracing at this time and this person is also in isolation. DPH is not aware of any other suspected cases at this time. (Oliviero, 6/14)

A tentative bipartisan deal to toughen federal gun laws picked up momentum in the Senate on Tuesday after Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) lent public support to a framework that negotiators released this week. McConnell’s backing provided further evidence that the current round of gun-law negotiations, which kicked off after last month’s deadly shooting inside a Texas elementary school, might just have what previous attempts at bipartisan compromise did not — sufficient GOP support to overcome a filibuster. (DeBonis, 6/14)

One day after the mass shooting of 19 children and two teachers in Texas, Kyrsten Sinema held a rare off-the-cuff press gaggle where she vowed to talk to Republicans about a gun safety deal. The Arizona Democrat didn’t waste any time after those remarks. She then marched onto the Senate floor to ask Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his deputy, John Thune, which Republicans she needed to talk to. The GOP duo replied to her: John Cornyn and Thom Tillis. (Everett and Levine, 6/14)

In the three weeks since a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a Uvalde elementary school, Gov. Greg Abbott has declined to use the power of his office to call a special session, form commissions or issue executive orders to address school safety or gun violence. Instead, the governor has issued eight directives imploring other Texas officials to take action, from conducting school safety assessments to promoting technology to report suspicious behavior. It’s a strategy that political experts say is substantive — but does not nearly represent the extent of the governor’s authority or influence. “As governor, he is the chief administrative officer of the state, and all the state agencies fall under his administrative purview,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. “For the governor to be instructing various agencies to take a part in the response to gun violence and the Uvalde shooting is perfectly reasonable. But on another level, it is — as always in Texas — a minimalist response.” (Harris, 6/15)

Iowa will spend $100 million of federal funding to prevent school shootings, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Tuesday. The funds will be used to conduct vulnerability assessments on schools, provide active shooter training, hire additional staff at the Department of Public Safety and create new pathways to report and monitor threats of violence. Schools, both public and private, will also be eligible for up to $50,000 each to improve the security of their buildings. (Akin, 6/14)

In an effort to curb shootings and make going to and from school less dangerous for students, Philadelphia officials announced they will spend $1.8 million on installing security cameras near city high schools and middle schools in high crime neighborhoods. Standing outside the John Bartram High School in Southwest Philadelphia, where a 17-year-old student was fatally shot in January after leaving campus, Mayor Jim Kenney and other city leaders said at a news conference Monday they hope the cameras will make criminals think twice about committing shootings around a school. (Hutchinson, 6/14)

Ohio law has long prohibited local governing bodies like city councils from passing laws restricting guns, but could the Columbus Board of Health take action on firearm safety?Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein floated that idea at the city Board of Health's May 17 meeting, but did not propose specific policies that the board could adopt. "We have taken it upon ourselves to look at loopholes and exceptions in the way that perhaps the legislature left wiggle room for the City of Columbus to act," Klein, a Democrat like other city leaders, said during the May meeting. "Where we think there's opportunity is actually in the regulations that can be passed from the Board of Health," Klein said. "But what those are, are to be determined." (Laird, 6/15)

Many people have noted a common thread between the recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas: In both cases, the attackers were 18 years old and bought AR-style, semi-automatic rifles legally. The perpetrators in two other mass shootings in the past four years also were younger than 21 when they purchased the semi-automatic rifles they used in their attacks. In February 2018, a 19-year-old former student killed 17 people and injured 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. And in April 2021, a 19-year-old shooter killed eight people and injured seven at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis. (Vasilogambros, 6/14)

California officials have agreed to pay $51 million to settle lawsuits against the state stemming from a shooting at a home for veterans in Northern California where a former patient fatally shot three female mental health workers and then himself. On March 9, 2018, Albert Wong, 36, took hostage three staffers with The Pathway Home, a nonprofit that operated a program at the Veterans Home of California in Yountville. The nonprofit treated veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with post-traumatic stress disorder. (6/15)

A coalition of companies representing the pharmaceutical, biotech, and diagnostics industries today released new guidelines to help antibiotic manufacturers limit the release of antibiotic manufacturing waste into the environment. ... The guidelines were developed because of growing concerns that the release of antibiotic-laced wastewater into the environment from manufacturing sites is contributing to the emergence of AMR in environmental bacteria. (Dall, 6/14)

Although pharma companies are increasingly taking action by setting and enforcing limits on wastewater released from manufacturing, a huge gap remains in applying those standards to suppliers, the Access to Medicine Foundation found in a report. (Paton, 6/14)

In a first-of-its-kind arrangement, Shionogi has reached an agreement with the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership to license an antibiotic to dozens of mostly low- and middle-income countries in a bid to combat antimicrobial resistance. The deal involves cefiderocol, which is used to treat gram-negative bacteria, a type of superbug that is increasingly resistant to most antibiotics. The bacteria, which can cause such infections as cholera, pose a particular threat for people with weak or undeveloped immune systems, including newborns, aging populations, people undergoing surgery, and patients being treated for cancer. (Silverman, 6/14)

A study of data from insured US children found that rotavirus vaccination was associated with reduced antibiotic prescribing for acute gastroenteritis, researchers reported last week in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. (6/13)

The makers of Aduhelm hoped their new drug would make history as the first effective treatment to slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease. Instead, the monoclonal antibody has headed down a more controversial path: While one government agency approved it for use, another declined to cover it, putting the future of the drug in limbo. Drug critics say the Food and Drug Administration approved Aduhelm prematurely. Supporters counter that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services unprecedented refusal to pay puts it outside the reach of most people who could potentially benefit. (Rudavsky, 6/15)

The federal investigation into pharmacy benefit managers' dealings comes at a time when the industry is more consolidated than ever. The Federal Trade Commission inquiry could lead to more restrictive policies and to sanctions against PBMs, along with other players in the pharmaceutical marketplace, legal experts predicted. But the industry has tools at its disposal to delay or weaken the probe. Combined, UnitedHealth Group's OptumRx, Cigna's Express Scripts and CVS Health's Caremark control nearly 80% of the prescription drug market and heavily influence the prices for and access to medications. (Tepper and Goldman, 6/14)

Centene Corp. will pay $13.7 million to New Mexico to settle allegations that its former pharmacy benefit manager overcharged the state's Medicaid department for drugs, the state attorney general said Monday. New Mexico is the sixth state to settle with Centene. The nation's largest Medicaid insurer is exiting the PBM space after reserving $1.25 billion to settle allegations from at least nine states that its pharmacy benefits arm, Envolve, inflated charges. (Tepper, 6/14)

“Ineffective, inefficient, fragmented, and unsustainable.” That’s the summation of the state of U.S. nursing homes — their practices, oversight and funding — that appears in a sweeping report from an expert committee of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Members of the committee compared the new report, “The National Imperative to Improve Nursing Home Quality,” published in April, with a landmark 1986 publication by the related Institute of Medicine, “Improving the Quality of Care in Nursing Homes.” The earlier paper highlighted many problems with the nursing-home system, including resident neglect, poor health-care quality, and inadequate regulation. Many of those critiques resulted in significant changes in federal policy in the 1987 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. (Goldsmith and Hoban, 6/15)

For the ninth year in a row, Boston Children’s Hospital has been ranked the No. 1 pediatric hospital in the country by US News & World Report. Dr. Kevin B. Churchwell, Boston Children’s Hospital’s president and chief executive officer, admitted to feeling some trepidation before this year’s rankings were released, and was pleased to learn that the hospital had claimed the top spot yet again. He credited those who work at the hospital and said the recognition was a tribute to their dedication to the patients and families that they serve. “These rankings are the product of everyone who works at Boston Children’s and the work they do every day,” Churchwell said in a phone interview. (Sweeney, 6/14)

The family of a 4-year-old boy is suing Texas Children’s Hospital over an Aug. 4 surgery in which a doctor mistakenly gave the child a partial vasectomy, according to the lawsuit. The complaint, filed June 7 in Harris County on behalf of John and Krystal Brod, names the primary surgeon, Dr. Susan Jarosz, and the hospital as defendants. In a statement, the hospital said its “top priority is the health and well-being of our patients” but that it cannot comment on pending litigation. The hospital had not filed a formal legal response by Tuesday. (Gill, 6/14)

The Blue Cross Blue Shield system of health insurance companies boasts on its website, “We take corporate responsibility seriously.” The insurers have offered “a neighborly helping hand as Americans weathered the crisis” of the coronavirus pandemic. But that helping hand has also received billions of dollars from the federal government over the past four years as part of a tax system that has favored, and has been partly molded by, Blue Cross Blue Shield. (Herman, 6/15)

Humana has donated a sizeable downtown building to the University of Louisville, the Kentucky-based insurance company announced Monday, to serve as home base for the school's Health Equity Innovation Hub. The building is located at 515 W. Market St., with eight floors and 130,000 square feet of office space. The insurance company, downtown Louisville's largest employer, recently vacated the space and had been looking for a tenant that would "add to the vibrancy and diversity of downtown while also aligning closely with Humana’s mission to improve the health and wellbeing of our members and communities,” according to Douglas Edwards, Humana's senior vice president of enterprise associate and business solutions. (Rocío Álvarez Bríñez, 6/14)

The Federal Trade Commission has begun an investigation into mental-health startup Cerebral Inc., according to a letter the FTC sent the company that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. In the letter dated June 1, the FTC said it was investigating whether Cerebral engaged in deceptive or unfair practices related to advertising or marketing of mental-health services. The letter also directed the company to preserve documents. (Winkler and Safdar, 6/14)

The American Medical Association pledged to fight legislation that expands mid-level providers' autonomy. Under a new policy proposal adopted Tuesday by the AMA House of Delegates, the trade group will support research on the cost and quality of nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other advanced practice practitioners caring for patients without a doctor's supervision. The association will help craft state legislation to oppose laws that expand the scope of practice for non-physicians and to reverse such laws that already exist. (Kim Cohen, 6/14)

There’s little question that U.S. hospitals—up against COVID, patient surges, and labor and supply shortages—have become less safe for patients during the pandemic, as preventable events and complications have become more common. Leaders with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said as much, earlier this year, in an article for the New England Journal of Medicine: “Many indicators make it clear that health care safety has declined,” they wrote, noting, “the fact that the pandemic degraded patient safety so quickly and severely suggests that our health care system lacks a sufficiently resilient safety culture and infrastructure.” Despite such frank assessments, CMS is now at odds with public safety advocates about whether to make some of the hospital-specific data behind those trends publicly available. (Fry, 6/14)

Staffing problems continue to dog Missouri’s mental hospitals despite attempts by Gov. Mike Parson and the Legislature to boost state worker pay. According to the Missouri Department of Mental Health, there are currently 203 individuals awaiting admission to state psychiatric hospitals after being ordered by a judge for “competency restoration.” That’s up from nearly 160 people in January when staffing woes at the hospitals were blamed on the state failing to keep pace with the private sector when it comes to salaries. (Erickson, 6/14)

KHN: Buy And Bust: When Private Equity Comes For Rural Hospitals 

When the new corporate owners of two rural hospitals suddenly announced they would stop admitting patients one Friday in March, Kayla Schudel, a nurse, stood resolute in the nearly empty lobby of Audrain Community Hospital: “You’ll be seen; the ER is open.” The hospital — with 40 beds and five clinics — typically saw 24 to 50 emergency room cases a day, treating patients from the surrounding 1,000-plus acre farms and tiny no-stoplight towns, she said. She wouldn’t abandon them. A week later Noble Health had the final word: It locked the doors. (Tribble, 6/15)

A "heat dome" is expected to bring triple-digit temperatures to portions of the Midwest, adding to the early onset temperatures already baking the Southwest. From California to Virginia, approximately 100 million Americans are under heat advisories, heat warnings or heat watches. St. Louis reported a record-high temperature of 100 degrees on Monday, and the heat index in parts of the Midwest neared 115 degrees. From Raleigh, North Carolina, to Chicago, actual temperatures are expected to reach near 100 degrees on Tuesday. (Guilfoil and Golembo, 6/14)

High temperatures enveloped a third of the U.S. population Tuesday, as wildfires in Arizona and California sparked during the heat wave there grew. Excessive heat watches, excessive heat warnings and heat advisories were in effect from the Upper Midwest to the Southeast, according to the National Weather Service. (Ansari and Azu, 6/14)

The Southwest Ohio Air Quality Agency has extended its Air Quality Alert to Wednesday for several counties. The alert will remain in effect all day Wednesday and includes Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Hamilton and Warren counties in Ohio; Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties in Kentucky and Dearborn County in Indiana. The agency initially issued the alert for Tuesday, saying ozone levels would be within the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” range on the Air Quality Index. (Moorwood, 6/14)

Ian Quattrocchi is a landscape worker, born and raised in St. Louis' summer heat and humidity, but the extreme heat has changed the way he and other outdoor laborers are working this week. The National Weather Service on Monday issued an excessive heat warning for the St. Louis region that lasts through Wednesday evening, as the area endures conditions that can feel as hot as 110 degrees. In 2015, Missouri had about 15 days with dangerous heat levels, according to a report from States at Risk, a project that shows how Americans experience climate change. By 2050, that number is expected to quadruple, the report says. (Anderson, 6/14)

A water line break in Odessa, Texas could leave nearly 165,000 people in and around the city with little to no water for 48 hours, according to city officials. The water main break occurred at around 6 p.m. Monday, with crews actively working around the clock to repair the 24-inch transmission water line. The city of Odessa has not yet released details regarding the cause of the break. (Franklin, 6/14)

As many look forward to the summer months and going into the water, beware of the germs lurking below that can cause water-borne infections and how to prevent them. During 2015 to 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the majority of the reported outbreaks associated with recreational water were secondary to a parasite called Cryptosporidium discovered in public pools or the bacteria known as Legionella in hot tubs, according a 2021 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (Sudhakar, 6/14)

As rivers across south-central Montana spilled over their banks Monday, flooding into nearby communities, one of the roads overtaken by water leads to the new Livingston HealthCare facility. With the floodwater creeping closer and closer to the hospital, officials there were told at about 6:15 p.m. they had 45 minutes to evacuate the building. By 7 p.m., the patients were gone, on their way to Pioneer Medical Center in nearby Big Timber, with the Livingston hospital's staff close behind. At 8:15 p.m., the hospital was empty. “It was remarkable,” said Deb Anczak, Livingston HealthCare's chief executive officer. “An absolute demonstration of teamwork.” (Compton, 6/14)

Older Black adults are three times more likely to die of air pollution than older white adults, according to a new study. The findings are part of a data analysis released this month by Industrial Economics, a consulting group commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund. Researchers analyzed Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Census data, health and mortality data of Medicare recipients, as well as findings from previous peer-reviewed studies on older adults’ exposure to air pollutants, to determine who is most at risk and by how much. (Hassanein, 6/15)

When Yolanda Owens went to a La Leche League meeting in Columbus shortly after the birth of her first daughter, Cooper, in 2015, she quickly felt out of place. The nonprofit, which offers education and support for families who wish to breastfeed, was only made up of white mothers at that particular meeting, leaving the 38-year-old Pickerington resident the lone Black woman in the room. And a few weeks prior, when Owens delivered Cooper at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, nurses assumed she was not planning to breastfeed, she said. (Walker, 6/15)

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) said today that it has begun an investigation into two confirmed measles cases. The infections are in two preschool-aged children in Hennepin County who reported symptoms shortly after returning from a country where measles is endemic. Neither child was vaccinated, and one was hospitalized because of measles complications. MDH says it is working to notify people who may have been exposed and has notified healthcare providers in the state to be alert for patients with signs or symptoms of measles. (6/14)

A mosquito sample from a Frisco pool trap has tested positive for West Nile virus, according to city officials. It is the first positive sample reported in Frisco this year, the city said, and was found in a trap in the Creekside at Preston neighborhood, near the intersection of McCommas and Michelle Drives. “The city is increasing surveillance efforts in public areas of that neighborhood and in the Panther Creek Estates and Dominion at Panther Creek neighborhoods,” the news release said. “No treatment will be scheduled for application at this time.” The city’s GIS Mosquito Dashboard displays the location of the sample, as well as locations of positive pool traps from last year. No human cases of West Nile virus are confirmed in Frisco this year, according to the release. (Caplan, 6/14)

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is warning visitors who may have come in contact with a bat while at an outdoor Malibu area restaurant to see a doctor for possible exposure to rabies, a fatal neurological disease. Public health officials were notified that a bat flew into a dining area at the Malibu Café at Calamigos Ranch and one person and possibly more handled the bat, which came in proximity of a group of children, the agency reported. (Scauzillo, 6/14)

Fisher-Price and U.S. product safety regulators are telling parents not to let their infants fall asleep in the company's rockers after 13 infants died in the devices between 2009 and 2021. The deaths happened when the babies fell asleep in Fisher Price's Infant-to-Toddler and Newborn-to-Toddler rockers. The company, along with U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, said the rockers should never be used for sleep and infants should never be left unsupervised or unrestrained in them. (Ott, 6/14)

West Virginia is allocating $10 million in federal coronavirus relief funding to bolster the state’s emergency medical services workforce, Gov. Jim Justice said. The Community and Technical College System, EMS community partners and state lawmakers reviewed current education and training opportunities for emergency medical technicians and paramedics and looked at areas of need, the Republican governor’s office said in a news release Tuesday. (6/15)

The $400 million in federal funding allocated by the state to mental health was seen as a watershed moment in addressing the growing crisis, a record-setting sum that advocates said would make a meaningful dent in the problem. Six months later, half of the allocation has languished, mired in bureaucratic infighting. Delayed fixes occurred as the state has struggled to bring about comprehensive and longer-term mental health care reforms. Meanwhile, the state’s mental health care crisis has only worsened, resulting in more and sicker patients coming to emergency rooms and waiting days or weeks for a psychiatric bed. (Bartlett, 6/14)

Kari Cooke, recently tapped by D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser to lead the city’s new Office of Deaf, Deafblind and Hard of Hearing, still remembers longing for a sense of community. Cooke, of New York, grew up with difficulty hearing that began to accelerate in her early twenties. Even as she embraced her deafness, she felt isolated from others who had found a connection through their fluency in American Sign Language. It wasn’t until later, when she joined the National Black Deaf Advocates, that Cooke finally felt that she belonged. (Brice-Saddler, 6/14)

More than 100 seniors were evacuated from a Maryland nursing home early Tuesday morning and relocated to other facilities across the state after a kitchen fire damaged part of the building and forced utilities to be shut off. Emergency responders from the Prince George’s County Fire and EMS Department were called to the Larkin Chase Center in Bowie at 3:42 a.m. for a report of an explosion that had trapped one person, fire officials said. The D.C., Anne Arundel County and Montgomery County fire departments assisted in evacuation efforts, officials said. (Hilton, Mettler and Hedgpeth, 6/14)

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed three bills into law Tuesday, including one that increases arson punishments and another that supporters say will get federally approved medicines that contain marijuana or its active ingredient quicker to those who need them. The bills are the first the Democratic governor has received — and signed — since the legislature’s annual work session began four weeks ago. Debate on all three measures began last year. (6/14)

A federal judge in Nebraska removed a major obstacle for activists who want to legalize medical marijuana via a ballot campaign, ruling that petition circulators no longer have to gather signatures from at least 5% of voters in 38 or more counties. U.S. District Judge John Gerrard issued an order Monday to temporarily bar the state from enforcing the requirement, which is enshrined in the Nebraska Constitution to guarantee at least some buy-in from rural voters before an issue can appear on a statewide ballot. (6/14)

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear named 17 people on Tuesday to serve on a medical marijuana advisory team that he formed by an executive order. Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary Kerry Harvey and Public Protection Cabinet Secretary Ray Perry will serve as co-chairs of the panel, which includes health care professionals, members of law enforcement and advocates for medical marijuana, Beshear said in a statement. (6/15)

A leading San Francisco provider of treatment programs for substance abuse and mental health disorders that is in financial distress received a temporary lifeline from city supervisors to maintain services for more than 200 people and keep dozens of nonprofit workers employed. PRC and Baker Places, two nonprofits in the process of merging, begged the Board of Supervisors to bail them out of a combined $3.2 million shortfall so they could continue running 215 treatment beds to provide detoxification, psychiatric care and other urgently needed help to some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. (Morris, 6/14)

San Francisco’s newest supervisor is pushing a plan for police officers to prioritize arresting drug dealers and confiscating illegal drugs from users in areas where people are seeking help with addiction. The plan is part of a broader “right to recovery” initiative that Supervisor Matt Dorsey is drafting as he tries to confront the fentanyl crisis unfolding in SoMa and other parts of his district where overdoses are high and city officials want to connect more people to treatment. (Morris, 6/14)

A new study offers a new and unique treatment for AIDS which may be developed into a vaccine or a one-time treatment for patients with HIV. (Tel Aviv University, 6/14)

A systematic review and analysis of studies on pregnant women with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) found some encouraging results, researchers reported late last week in JAMA Network Open. (6/13)

The monoclonal-antibody combination AZD7442 is composed of tixagevimab and cilgavimab, two neutralizing antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that have an extended half-life and have been shown to have prophylactic and therapeutic effects in animal models. Pharmacokinetic data in humans indicate that AZD7442 has an extended half-life of approximately 90 days. (Levin, M.D., et al, 6/9)

Implementation of policy measures in March 2020 in Canada stemmed prescription drug shortages—especially generic drugs—exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, finds an observational study published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). ... The authors acknowledged that the reduction in shortages may have stemmed from factors other than the policy changes, such as fewer healthcare visits and reduced demand for drugs amid pandemic restrictions. (Van Beusekom, 6/13)

The cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. can be enough to make you sick. What you pay varies enormously depending on the drug, the pharmacy, your insurance plan and your deductible, among many other factors. A drug that may have been cheap or at least affordable the last time you filled it could be far more expensive or not covered at all the next time. (Lis Weston, 6/13)

Two Kendall men spent seven years — not even pausing during the two years one of them was in prison — raking in $9 million in a scam involving coupons meant to help people pay for prescription drugs. They used friends, wives of friends, shell companies and pharmacies that existed only on paper. (Neal, 6/12)

New data on a breast cancer treatment from AstraZeneca and the Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo brought a standing ovation from cancer doctors attending their annual meeting in Chicago on Sunday. And with good reason. The drug, Enhertu, enabled women with advanced breast cancer to live six months longer than others treated with conventional chemotherapy. Oncologists call the results “practice changing” for metastatic breast cancer. (Lisa Jarvis, 6/6)

Undergoing cancer treatment is physically, emotionally, and financially burdensome.1 For people whose treatment regimens include orally administered anticancer drugs, the financial burden associated with these medications can be overwhelming. About half of anticancer drugs are orally administered. Such drugs provide distinct benefits for patients, since they can reduce the amount of time spent receiving infusions and traveling to appointments. (Stacie B. Dusetzina, Ph.D., 6/9)

For decades, many physicians, parents and teachers have believed that stimulant medications help children with ADHD learn because they are able to focus and behave better when medicated. After all, an estimated 6.1 million children in the U.S. are diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and more than 90 percent are prescribed stimulant medication as the main form of treatment in school settings. (William E. Pelham, Jr. 6/12)

It's unimaginable that more than two years into the pandemic with more than 15 million people killed, World Trade Organization (WTO) countries are still stuck debating whether WTO intellectual property barriers should be waived for COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests. Actually, that's not quite correct: The needed waiver has been scotched thanks to a few wealthy countries doing Big Pharma's bidding. (Joseph E. Stiglitz and Lori Wallach, 6/10)

Last week, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed a bill that shields health care providers who prescribe off-label drugs to treat COVID-19. Studies show that the drugs in question — hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin — do not treat COVID-19 and may cause harm. Major medical and pharmacy organizations have urged members not to provide these drugs, but prescribing continues. (Liz Chiarello, 6/12)

The Supreme Court may not realize it, but in overturning Roe v. Wade it would open up a horrifying and perhaps counterintuitive possibility that should repulse all admirers of liberty: the legality of forced abortion or sterilization. Just as a fetus is inextricably fused with the body of the person gestating it, if the Court erases Roe and thus obliterates the right not to beget and bear a child, it will inevitably erase its reflection: the right to bring a child into the world. If Roe was wrong, then decisions upholding mandatory sterilization and abortion would be right. (Lawrence H. Tribe, 6/14)

Mississippi’s last abortion clinic is almost certainly operating on borrowed time. In early May, a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion suggested that the majority-conservative bench will nullify the consitutional right to an abortion as set in Roe v. Wade. Such a decision would pave the way for significant rollbacks at the state level. An official ruling is expected in the next few weeks. But for now, Jackson Women’s Health Organization—the clinic at the center of the high-profile case before the Court—remains open. (Caroline Mimbs Nyce, 6/14)

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death for women in the United States. Yet breast cancer doesn’t impact all communities in the same way. Despite having similar rates of breast cancer, Black women in the United States are more likely than white women to die of the disease, due to a range of social, economic, political and environmental factors that contribute to an individuals’ health conditions and disparities. COVID-19 also has wreaked havoc on cancer detection and further compounded these disparities, creating a “COVID cancer effect.” (Clare Dougherty, 6/14)

One of my greatest sources of inspiration and hope during the pandemic has been the courage and dedication of health workers. Their fierce commitment to care for us, despite the dangers to themselves and their loved ones, deserves our lasting appreciation and support. Which is why it is so troubling that, these days, when I visit a hospital, clinic or health department and ask staff how they’re doing, they use words like exhausted, traumatized, helpless and heartbroken. (Dr. Vivek Murthy, 6/14)

Pandemics have consequences beyond the death and disease directly caused by the novel pathogen. In the 1918 influenza pandemic, more deaths were caused by the pneumococcal bacterium among those made susceptible to bacterial infection by influenza than by the flu itself. One potential byproduct of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic is the threat of an old scourge: measles. (Saad B. Omer, 6/12)

Cancer afflicts more older people than those in any other age group. In fact, over half of cancers diagnosed in the United States occur in those over the age of 65. That number is expected to reach 70 percent by 2030, as the population experiences an unprecedented boom of senior citizens. A growing number of targeted cancer therapies and immunotherapies are available today, but older people often don’t have access to these options, putting them at greater risk of dying from their disease. And even when they do have access to the latest medicines, these treatments, such as those for multiple myeloma, may not work as well in ethnic minority groups, especially in older patients. This gap in care for some older adults is even wider because of racial, economic, and geographic barriers. (Dany Habr, 6/14)

In my 13 years of pediatric practice, I have counseled thousands of new parents about their myriad concerns for their newborns, most recently how to meet the nutritional needs of their baby if the family uses baby formula. This is a stressful situation that is causing anxiety for many parents. First and foremost, keeping our babies adequately fed is imperative. (Yami Cazorla-Lancaster, 6/14)

No decent person wants to hurt children. Yet as pediatricians and longtime public health practitioners, we’ve both seen how children can be harmed by adults’ poor decisions. Efforts to block gender-affirming care for trans children have been more about politics than about health, and kids are paying the price: More than 90% of LGBTQ+ youths say recent politics has harmed their mental health. (Julie Morita and Donald Schwartz, 6/15)